NASA sold PCs containing sensitive info

It’s not rocket science, but recycling old PCs led to a potentially serious security blunder for the folks at NASA.

NASA has announced that 10 used computers were recently sold to the public without being wiped of sensitive information, CSO reports.

The PCs were used for NASA’s space shuttle program and were being sold in preparation for the program’s retirement next year.

According to NASA, computers from all space centers were scheduled to be wiped or have their hard drives removed. However, some locations weren’t using approved wiping software, and most didn’t have procedures in place to test that all data had been wiped.

Properly disposing of, recycling or reselling used computer equipment is something every IT organization must deal with. Learn your lesson from NASA: Make sure all data is wiped before machines leave the company.

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